Oklahoma Chokes as it Blows

Photo Bob Stoops Licensed on Flickr with CC-BY-SA-2.0

I can’t in recent memory remember a team and a coach that has let me down more times then Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma Sooners. Now to be clear, I believed they would lose to the University of Houston, which they did on Sept. 3, 33-23. After that loss I believed the Sooners would rebound after beating up on Louisiana- Monroe, and defeat the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sept. 17. Well they beat ULM, and subsequently got humiliated by the Buckeyes. Seriously, it’s one thing to lose, its another to get annihilated 45-24.

Am I wrong to expect more from Stoops, who is not only a national champion (2000), but has won 9 Big 12 Championships? What is missing from this OU team? Baker Mayfield finished fourth in Heisman voting last year, Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon are the best backfield tandem in the country. Charles Walker is a potential first round pick at defensive tackle. Walker leads a defense that is full of future pros. What is missing? Ohio State is a well coached school with a more recent national championship success, but is OU that bad?

To be honest, maybe OU is that bad. In retrospective Stoops nickname, “Big Game Bob” is ratcheting up my ire. The real reason I am pissed, is not only did OU lose and cost themselves any chance at a playoff birth, but Houston as well. Houston is the most deserving team of a college football playoff selection. If OU would have beaten Ohio State and won the Big 12, ( which they could still do) a chaos scenario would have emerged. I want chaos!!! Now Houston and the University of Louisville for that matter needs a prayer to get in. The playoff committee is not interested in a Cinderella story like Houston or Louisville. Their job is to get the largest payday for schools and conferences. Which means they need a large fan bases to buy tickets to these games. Unfortunately that doesn’t exist at Houston or Louisville like it does at Southern California, Ohio State, or Oklahoma. It’s midnight for Cinderella.

Speaking of let downs, what in the hell happened to Florida State? Losing 63-20 to Louisville, 63! They didn’t just lose, or get outscored, FSU was dominated in every aspect of that football game. I can remember watching the University of Texas play Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game in 2009, and I was astonished how the Texas O-line got dominated by Ndamukong Suh and the Nebraska defensive line. Louisville may have topped that performance Saturday night. They were able to knock FSU back and hold future first round pick Dalvin Cook, to 3.4 yards per carry. How bad was it? Louisville missed a field goal with 13:20 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Florida State then scored a touchdown, making the score 14-10. UL then scored 6 unanswered touchdowns.

Even worse, now I gotta tip my hat to Louisville coach Bobby Petrino. Say what you will and I’m thinking the same thing, but no one bounces back better from more self-inflicted adversity then Petrino. Petrino for all his public personal flaws can really coach a football team. He will likely and be well deserving of enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame. Petrino is still most responsible for putting Louisville football in the national conversation as one of the best college programs in the country. When he does leave Louisville ( which he will) and takes his next big time coaching job at Mississippi State or Arizona State, he will deserve it. He has paid a price for his dubious actions, and it’s time to move on.

Here are the biggest winners and losers from this past weekend. Omission: Louisville. Even though they had a gigantic win, I can’t say they were big winners. Oklahoma lost, so they were big loser as well for reasons I pointed out earlier. So even if they beat Houston, what will it mean? Florida St would need to win the ACC (don’t count on it). Two conference champions would have to have at least a two or three losses. Teams like Stanford and Baylor. In summary, they won big and lost big.

Winners

My brother and Ohio State fans My younger brother warned me about picking against Ohio State. No way I thought Ohio State would be that good, in Norman. O-H-I-O looked dominant. I do wonder how long the can win games with the puny arm strength of QB J.T. Barrett. Let me stop hating, they won and they are starting to remind me of Kobe’s Lakers. When you pick against them, they leave you silent in front of your T.V. contemplating life decisions.

Michigan State Big win over Notre Dame, and the Spartans have a really good passing attack featuring QB Tyler O’Connor and WR Donnie Corley. The Spartans are a team to look out for, especially since they came into this season under the radar. The Big 10 conference is no longer a two team race. Things could get interesting for Michigan and Ohio State before late November.

North Dakota State The Bison make this look routine but beating #13 ranked Iowa in Iowa City was special. Congratulations to the Bison for continuing to dominate their schedule year in and year out. Question is, how long can they maintain head coach Chris Klieman? There is a $8 million per year check out there for him when he wants it.

Losers

These Fools Joe Mixon, Vic Enwere, and all the other players who have fumbled the ball on the 1 yard line before scoring a touchdown. This is getting on my last nerve, cross the goal line and then punt the ball into the stands. At least then you have done something positive while punishing your team. Personally I hope their respective coaches punishes them hard with some type of community service. This is so uncalled for.

Oregon Is it really over? Has Oregon really fallen behind this much much since Marcus Mariota graduated. To lose to Nebraska, a program that has been a footnote in recent college football history is disturbing. Eugene is home to great facilities and a state of the art campus. During that game Nebraska had superior players. That’s disheartening.

Georgia Yes they won, they beat Missouri 28-27 in Columbia. However, Kirby Smart has to get this offense together. This is a team that is struggling with injuries, but not to the point where they should be playing close games to the Tigers. They got the win but it’s certainly not a good sign for a team that was supposed to challenge Alabama.